ProverbMorality
English origin1665
English origin1665Set a thief to take a thief.
Meaning: Fighting cunning requires cunning; only a dishonest person understands another's deceptive methods well enough to counter them.
Origin: The idea is that nobody knows a thief's tricks better than another thief. A play of 1665 already calls "set a thief to catch a thief" an old saying, and John Ray collected it in 1670. It has long been the justification for employing reformed criminals to catch active ones.
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